Search Results for: label/RYOB Challenge

Disclosure: I purchased this as an e-book to read on my Amazon Kindle. *I am an Amazon Associate and an IndieBound Affiliate. Purchasing links are provided by Amazon.com and IndieBound.org, and will generate a small referral fee for me.*

Opening Lines: “The stone walls of Loretto Academy are so thick I can sit cured up on a windowsill, arms around the knees tucked under my chin. It stands on a bluff not far from the Horseshoe Falls, and because I have been a student long enough to rank a room on the river side, I have only to open a pair of shutters to take in my own private view of the Niagara.”

Book description: 1915. The dawn of the hydroelectric power era in Niagara Falls. Seventeen-year-old Bess Heath has led a sheltered existence as the youngest daughter of the director of the Niagara Power Company. After graduation day at her boarding school, she is impatient to return to her picturesque family home near the falls. But when she arrives, nothing is as she left it. Her father has lost his job at the power company, her mother is reduced to taking in sewing from the society ladies she once entertained, and Isabel, Bess’s vivacious older sister, is a shadow of her former self. She has shut herself in her bedroom, barely eating and harboring a secret.

The night of her return, Bess meets Tom Cole by chance on a trolley platform, she finds herself inexplicably drawn to him against her family’s strong objections. He is not from their world. Rough-hewn and fearless, he lives off what the river provides and has an uncanny ability to predict the whims of the falls. His daring river rescues render him a local hero and cast him as a threat to the power companies that seek to harness the falls for themselves. As the couple’s lives become more fully entwined, Bess is forced to make a painful choice between what she wants and what is best for her family and her future.

Set against the tumultuous backdrop of Niagara Falls, at a time when daredevils shot the river rapids in barrels and great industrial fortunes were made and lost as quickly as lives disappeared, The Day the Falls Stood Still is an intoxicating debut novel.

Comments: I’ve looked forward to reading Cathy Marie Buchanan’s first novel, The Day the Falls Stood Still, ever since I started seeing reviews of it cropping up several months ago. I tend to prefer historical fiction that deals with more recent history, and the early 20th century – a time of such great change in the world – is a period that particularly interests me. I’m intrigued by Canada, the only foreign country I’ve visited. And I love waterfalls. The abundance of waterfalls was one of the most appealing things about living in the Finger Lakes region of New York, and I’ve never forgotten my family’s one visit to Niagara Falls when I was a child; I’ve always wanted to see it again. However, according to the Author’s Note at the end of Buchanan’s book, the Falls were much more of a sight to see a hundred years ago.

This well-researched novel is set in a period of great change in the Niagara River and the area around the Falls, as hydroelectric power was becoming a greater force (no pun intended), and it views those changes through their effects on a family…because although the river plays a significant role, this is the story of a family: the family of Bess Heath Cole.

Buchanan divides the novel into two parts. Book One is a more personal, intimate story, as the Heath family is forced to adjust to a change in their financial and social standing by taking in sewing and trying to ensure an advantageous marriage for at least one of their two daughters. However, these things don’t always go as planned, and the eligible young man Mrs. Heath has in mind for her older daughter Isabel has his eye on her younger sister Bess. Bess, however, is quietly developing a relationship with Tom Cole, a young fisherman whose late grandfather, Fergus, passed on his legendary knowledge of the river (and his daring rescues of those who met trouble at the Falls) to him. When these two eventually do come together, it’s in the aftermath of personal tragedy and in the midst of the First World War.

Book Two is larger in scope, as it starts out with Bess as a war bride getting started as a seamstress in her own right, soon to become a mother while her husband fights on the battlegrounds of Europe. When Tom returns from the war, he needs to get to know his wife and son, and to get reacquainted with the river, which is changing as the new power plants are being built to harness his power, and where his knowledge is more needed than ever. The political and ecological effects of development are a big part of this story, and it’s interesting to note that some of the same debates are still going on today.

The Day the Falls Stood Still didn’t really become the novel I expected it to be until Book Two, and although it held my interest all the way through, it was the last third of the book that really grabbed me, and I found its final chapters riveting and touching. I liked the way that the issues of the day were integrated into the story, and I think that this was largely accomplished through Buchanan’s development of her characters. The story is narrated from Bess’ first-person perspective, and I didn’t entirely warm up to her for a while. However, the character truly grows over the course of the novel, and she became someone I could believe in; I think I could say the same for the book as a whole, to be honest, as I felt that it strengthened as it went along.

I enjoyed my trip back in time to Niagara with Cathy Buchanan, and I’m wondering where she will take readers next.

Disclosure: I purchased this book for my personal reading. *Purchasing links in this review are through my Amazon Associates account, and I will net a small referral fee for their use. The Local News: A Novel Miriam Gershow Spiegel & Grau (2010), Paperback (ISBN 9780385527620 / 0385527624) Fiction, 378 pages Opening Lines: “After my brother went missing, my parents let me use their car whenever I wanted, even though I only had a learner’s permit. […]

Inspired by Kim at Sophisticated Dorkiness (and others), I’m taking a look back at my half-year in reading. (Since I’m still typing one-handed, it will be a relatively brief look.) I’m pretty satisfied with my 2010 reading so far, both in quality and numbers. Currently, my LibraryThing reviews are more up-to-date than my reviews on the blog; I’ve changed my routine to post them there as soon as they’re written, while the reviews here post […]

Disclosure: I bought this book for my personal library. *Purchasing links in this review are connected to my Amazon Associates account, and will generate a small referral fee to me if clicked. The Heart is Not a Size Beth Kephart HarperTeen (2010), Hardcover (ISBN 0061470481 / 9780061470486) Fiction (YA), 256 pages Opening Lines: “What I remember now is the bunch of them running: from the tins, which were their houses. Up the white streets, which […]

Disclosure: I purchased both of these books for my own personal reading. *Purchasing links in this review are connected to my Amazon Affiliates account and will generate a small referral fee for me if they’re used. Undercover Beth Kephart HarperCollins, 2009, paperback (ISBN 9780061238956 / 0061238953) Fiction (young adult), 304 pages Opening lines: “One day I saw a vixen and a dog fox dancing. It was on the other side of the cul-de-sac, past the […]

Before getting into the discussion of the quality of my reading this year, let’s run some numbers: BOOKKEEPING: The Reading Status Report Number of books read and reviewed in 2009: 47. This is an improvement over my 2007 reading, and a nice return to form from the dismal 35 I read in 2008. Given the pace at which I usually read, which isn’t aided by big chunks of reading time (other than my “Starbucks hour” […]

Does the holiday season take a big chunk out of your reading time? Between weekends spent shopping, decorating, and socializing and the normal daily routine, I find that I have fewer opportunities to settle down with a book, unless I can squeeze in a day off here and there (which I am doing a couple of times before Christmas, and possibly more once I know what my son’s travel plans for the holidays are). My […]

I just looked at the calendar, and there are not quite eight weeks left in 2009 (!). Soon I’ll be putting together my Books of the Year picks and my Year in Review posts. It may be a little more challenging this year. I’ve read more books than the 35 I managed last year (yay!), and I’m pretty sure I’ll knock out a few more before the end of December. But I’ve also read quite […]

If you’re visiting The 3 R’s for the first time via the Sunday Salon feed, welcome, and please take a look around! While you’re here, why not take a few minutes to enter one of my three 1000-Post Celebration Giveaways? They’re still open for a few more days – the last day to enter is Wednesday, October 14! Here’s what you could win (you may enter only one giveaway): #1: ARC Fiction Package These Advance […]

This week on Weekly Geeks, Terri asks about reading plans for the rest of the year: It’s hard to believe we’re approaching the last quarter of 2009. Soon those of us in the northern hemisphere will be curled up in front of the fire (or solar heater) with our favorite wintry reads, and those in the southern will be off to the beaches with their summer books. Do you have a plan of what you’re […]

BOOKKEEPING: The Reading Status Report By the Numbers: Book reviews posted in 2009 so far: 28 Books read for the RYOB 2009 Challenge: 12 (goal is 20) Books received for review in 2009, to date: 30 Books acquired in 2009, to date, from all sources: 97 (!) (Evidently, receiving review copies of books is not having the slightest detrimental effect on my book-purchasing habits!) Books in the LibraryThing “To Read” collection: 229 (That number is […]

BOOKKEEPING: The Reading Status Report Guess who bought a Kindle?! (My mother-in-law let me try out hers first, and when I decided I really liked it, she offered me one of my own. Thanks, Peggy!) It’s scheduled to arrive early next week, and I’m open to suggestions for my first e-books – if you have any, comments please! This may be my way around the whole “waiting for the paperback” problem… Reviews posted this week: […]

BOOKKEEPING: The Reading Status Report Reviews posted this week: The Unit, by Ninni Holmqvist Next review scheduled: Certain Girls, by Jennifer Weiner (RYOB Challenge) New additions to my “to be read” collection in LibraryThing: The Widows of Eastwick, by John Updike (a belated sequel to The Witches of…) Wife of the Gods: A Novel, by Kwei Quartey (for an upcoming TLC Book Tour) Nothing but Ghosts and Undercover, both by Beth Kephart ++ Pasadena: A […]

This week, Karen has appointed another “guest professor,” Laura of YBTN, to give the Weekend Assignment. Both the main question and the extra credit are hers, as we return to a favorite subject for some of us: books! Weekend Assignment #252: Where do you get books from? Extra Credit: What was the last book you read, and why? I almost feel like I should abstain from this week’s topic, since I talk about books so […]

referral links, from me to you!

something for us both: a new product or service for you, credit for me!